It’s a strange topsy-turvy moment we’re in. Instead of dismantling stereotypes, progressives are leaning into them. It comes up across multiple spheres. My daughter is asked about her pronouns after cutting her hair, as though short hair is somehow incompatible with femininity. Instead of expanding what’s possible as a girl, we’ve firmed…
It’s a strange topsy-turvy moment we’re in. Instead of dismantling stereotypes, progressives are leaning into them. It comes up across multiple spheres. My daughter is asked about her pronouns after cutting her hair, as though short hair is somehow incompatible with femininity. Instead of expanding what’s possible as a girl, we’ve firmed up the old boxes and just let people move between them.
It’s somehow now ok (even funny) to dismiss any white woman we don’t want to listen to as a Karen. We didn’t stop racial name-calling. We just broadened it.
The “progressive” position for the first year+ of the pandemic was to keep the schools closed for, believe it or not, the benefit of marginalized people who, the narrative went, did not wish to return to school because of racism, etc.
I feel like the world has turned upside down. I want to be a progressive again in the world right-side-up.
"My daughter is asked about her pronouns after cutting her hair, as though short hair is somehow incompatible with femininity."
I wrote about this phenomena recently. Absolutely mind-boggling that progressives have become so regressive! It's happened so quickly and to such an extreme too! Just a complete surrender to the stereotypes we've been trying to abandon. And yes, as you say, it's happening across multiple spheres.
"My daughter is asked about her pronouns after cutting her hair, as though short hair is somehow incompatible with femininity. Instead of expanding what’s possible as a girl, we’ve firmed up the old boxes and just let people move between them. "
This sums it up well, Erin. Instead of joining forces and continuing to push against all gender stereotypes, it seems the "progressives" are more interested in adding more labels and enforcing the old stereotypes (as Steve has so eloquently written about). As an older women who has spent my life pushing hard against gender stereotypes that I do not agree with nor it into, it feels as though the current progressive behavior and narrative has set us back 10 years. I fear the right-wing extremism we see today has in large part been driven by backlash against what has become very prominent left-wing extremism.
It’s a strange topsy-turvy moment we’re in. Instead of dismantling stereotypes, progressives are leaning into them. It comes up across multiple spheres. My daughter is asked about her pronouns after cutting her hair, as though short hair is somehow incompatible with femininity. Instead of expanding what’s possible as a girl, we’ve firmed up the old boxes and just let people move between them.
It’s somehow now ok (even funny) to dismiss any white woman we don’t want to listen to as a Karen. We didn’t stop racial name-calling. We just broadened it.
The “progressive” position for the first year+ of the pandemic was to keep the schools closed for, believe it or not, the benefit of marginalized people who, the narrative went, did not wish to return to school because of racism, etc.
I feel like the world has turned upside down. I want to be a progressive again in the world right-side-up.
"My daughter is asked about her pronouns after cutting her hair, as though short hair is somehow incompatible with femininity."
I wrote about this phenomena recently. Absolutely mind-boggling that progressives have become so regressive! It's happened so quickly and to such an extreme too! Just a complete surrender to the stereotypes we've been trying to abandon. And yes, as you say, it's happening across multiple spheres.
"My daughter is asked about her pronouns after cutting her hair, as though short hair is somehow incompatible with femininity. Instead of expanding what’s possible as a girl, we’ve firmed up the old boxes and just let people move between them. "
This sums it up well, Erin. Instead of joining forces and continuing to push against all gender stereotypes, it seems the "progressives" are more interested in adding more labels and enforcing the old stereotypes (as Steve has so eloquently written about). As an older women who has spent my life pushing hard against gender stereotypes that I do not agree with nor it into, it feels as though the current progressive behavior and narrative has set us back 10 years. I fear the right-wing extremism we see today has in large part been driven by backlash against what has become very prominent left-wing extremism.